An alert reader (and experienced web writer) commented today,
InfoBarrel, in my personal opinion, is a scam. They have a traffic counter so that you can see how many people look at your articles. However, that doesn’t translate into the AdSense traffic they promise. If you ask about it, they tell you that hundreds of bots are reading your articles, not people, so you don’t get the AdSense views. I’m sorry, but I have been writing content full time for years, and I have several of my own sites. I know Web traffic. You get a bot or two every few days, but hundreds a week? It’s completely ridiculous. I wouldn’t recommend InfoBarrel on a dare.”
The commenter makes some valid points. So, is InfoBarrel a scam? As you may know, InfoBarrel makes my short list of sites that I recommend writing for. They are transparent, have more quality control standards than many sites, are responsive to members’ questions and concerns, and it is fairly easy to make 90% revenue share on their site. Their standard share is 75%, and meeting a quota or contest goal is enough to increase that to 90%.
But it turns out that InfoBarrel did used to have a system that merely counted all visits to a page, and did not give writers a true picture of their traffic. However, I found that they posted on their blog in January that InfoBarrel had resolved the bots view count issue.
Being a relatively new site, InfoBarrel is still working out a couple of kinks, but the site is user-friendly, and the management is quite responsive. So when they realized that members wanted true view counts, they fixed the problem, and now when bots visit your articles on InfoBarrel, those visits are not included in view counts.
Better still, InfoBarrel has added Google Analytics for pre-approved writers. Writers become pre-approved on InfoBarrel after posting 10 well-written, spam-free articles. Not difficult at all for most experienced content writers.
So there you go! I’m happy to report that I can still recommend them. And thanks for commenting, LS. I’m sure others have had the same doubt, and it’s wise to carefully consider all aspects of sites in which you plan to invest your time and talent.
I want to know that the sites I stand behind are not going to run the old eHow bait-and-switch, that they are transparent, and communicate quickly and directly with members, and I will check out any similar questions for readers. This was not an easy answer to find, but I’m confident that InfoBarrel’s management would have responded had I asked.
And no, in my opinion, InfoBarrel is not a scam. But you can’t blame people for being gun-shy these days!,
Does anyone have screenshots of their infobarrel adsense earnings? I have been submitting articles to infobarrel long before it became popular to do so, and earnings to views ratio is just not there for me. (I’m comparing the adsense earnings to adsense impressions, not the inflated infobarrel views)
The word I always see in posts that talk about Infobarrel is “potential.”
In the year that I’ve been on infobarrel, i’ve yet to see them live up to this potential. It seemed they only recently kick-started their mission to make money for their contributors. But you have to admit, alot of that was done in response to eHow-fail. I mean, the ehow meltdown was a windfall for them, a lucky break. If it hadn’t occured, Infobarrel would still be as obscure as ever. I’ve always thought a PROactive business plan was better than REactive one. But I guess a reactive one is better than nothing….
On ehow there is this pervasive “wait and see” attitude when it comes to fixing bugs and worse. I find this “wait and see” attitude spilling over into Infobarrel when people talk about its potential. It kind of irks me! Just because a bunch of y’all only discovered Infobarrel until very recently doesn’t mean that they haven’t been around for a lot longer. They’ve had a loooooooong time to grow and improve their site, yet there isn’t much to show for it earnings-wise. You can wait and see for their potential to blossom, but I have a feeling it’s going to be a sloooooooooow process.
I will grant one positive aspect of Infobarrel: for all its sluggishness, it is one heck of a stable site. there is no sense of imminent implosion. ehow is just waiting for the other shoe to drop. I just KNOW that the neglect of site bugs is on purpose to drive away WCP writers.
Thank you for your comments, Rhea.
In answer to your question, I have personally seen a friend’s InfoBarrel earnings screenshots, which is one reason I feel comfortable recommending the site. A new InfoBarrel ebook will be published soon, as well, that includes documentation. I volunteered to edit it myself to get first crack at reading it, and it’s quite comprehensive. In fact, it’s got loads of helpful tips for writers on any site, and I will let you all know the minute it is published.
Regarding ‘inflated views,’ the InfoBarrel view tracking system was overhauled in January, so it no longer includes bot views as it did when the site was new.
It sounds like you got in on the ground floor with InfoBarrel since you’ve been there a year (they launched about a year and a half ago). If you are promoting your articles and optimizing for SEO, they should be earning by now. If you’d like some help analyzing their earnings potential, I’d be happy to take a look at them for you with another analyst and an InfoBarrel expert, and see if we can determine what’s holding them back. Just let me know via comments or email info[at]crunchydata[dot]com.
Though I personally know people whose earnings per page view are demonstrably higher at InfoBarrel than on other sites they’ve written for, I understand your hesitation at hearing the word ‘potential,’ referring to InfoBarrel. Especially if you haven’t seen the earnings you had hoped for there. And yes, eHow’s stall tactics have made a lot of us weary and gun shy of other sites.
But there are significant differences between eHow’s model and InfoBarrel’s, beginning with two key facts:
1. InfoBarrel is transparent and generous with their revenue sharing, and
2. InfoBarrel does not exploit analytics data from its writer-owned content to gauge the earnings potential of its own prepaid content that is then commissioned to compete directly against the writer-owned content in a no-win scenario for its members. That is the eHow model. It is a system rigged in favor of eHow, and you will never see me recommend that you write for a site that uses such an unfair model.
So in response to your comment and the comment that prompted my InfoBarrel view-tracking post, this morning I contacted Ryan McKenzie, one of InfoBarrel’s owners, told him we had some questions for him, and he responded within an hour. He enthusiastically agreed to discuss InfoBarrel here on Crunchy Data later this week.
If you have any more questions for Ryan, please let me know, or contact him directly through InfoBarrel, or wait to see what he has to say later this week on Crunchy Data. Thanks again for commenting!
rhea,
This isn’t true, however, I could understand why you believe it is the case.
“If it hadn’t occured (the eHow fiasco), Infobarrel would still be as obscure as ever.”
Ryan and Kevin (the owners of Info Barrel) are experts at utilizing web 2.0 to make things go ‘viral’. In fact, Ryan, even at his young age, has commanded up to $10,000+/month/client just to help them make things go viral. There really is an art and science to it, but these guys KNOW what they are doing.
Do you recall seeing an article, during the Olympics, about 10 Inspirational Olympics Stories, posted on Info Barrel? They created that article for a reason….stripped off the ads….and coded in some social bookmarking functions, and let the thing run wild. By promoting the article, they, in turn, promoted the website…..capitalizing off of the increased traffic that the olympics brought.
Had the eHow fiasco never occurred, writers would still join this site. In fact, one source says that they receive upwards of 400,000 unique visitors a month now and growing every month. Many people, like yourself, joined Info Barrel before the eHow fiasco. Still others have compared Info Barrel to eHow and realized that Info Barrel offers a more generous and transparent platform.
People speak of the ‘potential’ because it is there. Unfortunately, in the early stages of this game, people are essentially forced to REALLY learn SEO and LSI, at least until Info Barrel commands the same search engine authority that the eHows and HubPages of this world have. So, for Info Barrel, withstanding a few exceptions, it would be a little difficult for just anyone to upload content and expect it to earn hundreds over night. (Learning SEO isn’t such a bad thing….it’s time consuming….but, Info Barrel is an opportunity to do that, WITH a very clear and transparent revenue share structure).
The point I do advocate, however, is that those who ‘get in’ early (like a stock) do have the opportunity to make quite a bit as the result of their articles maturing while IB gains search engine authority.
“Just because a bunch of y’all only discovered Infobarrel until very recently doesn’t mean that they haven’t been around for a lot longer.”
You NEED to keep your eyes on charts like these: http://www.quantcast.com/infobarrel.com
(Click the “All” button)
They have been around since they launched in 2008….yes, it has been 2 years, but, check out case studies like THIS: http://www.infobarrel.com/blog/2010/02/18/infobarrel-success-stories-jcmayer777/
The reason this gentleman’s earnings are SO significant is because, even as a PR4 website, he is beginning to approach what Top earners on eHow and Squidoo earn. We can deduce a lot from this (and, in fact, using as a bit of a baseline in determining just how little a select website’s “secret algorithms” REALLY pay out)
Granted, he is VERY good at SEO, however, their are many other factors involved….and, it reaches to the core with how Info Barrel has chosen to incentivize their platform functionality. Rather than create a crappy website (and throw thousands of dollars into advertising right off the bat, like eHow), Info Barrel has been growing its website slowly, yet surely, with strict adherence to quality control and assurance of their database of articles. Slow growth, over time, allows them the opportunity to identify major glitches before they become absolute huge (ever stop by eHow’s glitches forum?)
The same glitches that I encountered when I was a member (in August 2009) are STILL occurring to this day. Do they not care about what their members have to say? Do they have too little staffing to tackle and address problems? (for a company/website that earns millions each month, there is absolutely NO excuse for such horrible glitches….hire a few people, if need be….)
There is no reason for a website of that caliber, who is supposed to be an “industry leader” to have so many glitches. Market share is slowly being taken away from them.
Howie, I agree with most of what you have said. What many people don’t realize though, is that to earn any money on eHow now, newer members, (who appear to be subject to a different ‘secret algorithm’ than members who have been there since before mid-2009), must not only apply advanced SEO techniques to their eHow articles, but they must spend an inordinate amount of time promoting and backlinking those articles.
Once they have spent upwards of three hours on an eHow article, not including dealing with the numerous publishing glitches on eHow, a small minority of eHow members may find that a few of their articles hit pay dirt. But for the most part, advanced SEO writers and promoters will find they are earning, on average, only up to $2 per article, per month on eHow. If eHow cuts their WCP program completely, as many speculate will happen soon, writers may find that they have earned pennies per hour investing in eHow, (which is what it appears that most eHow members already earn, at about 67 cents per article, per month). And that was before many eHow members’ earnings began to fall.
If writers invest that same amount of time and effort researching, writing, and promoting their InfoBarrel, HubPages, and other legitimate sites’ articles, they stand a much better chance of earning a viable, long-term residual income.
I suggest that readers watch Chezfat’s blog for more detailed information on various content sites’ earnings. Chezfat has analyzed data from several writers, and he objectively reports his findings on a regular basis.
rhea,
In complete transparency (eHow could use a dose of that….)….I think it’s only appropriate that I am honest and forthright about why my opinion of Info Barrel has been shaped the way it has.
Yes, after going back and reading Kim’s comment….myself, and another gentleman who writes on Info Barrel, have spent the last 4-5 months writing 6 books about Info Barrel. On one hand, we do hope to capitalize off of it and earn quite a bit for our labor, however, we have also tailored the product, and sales copy, to make such a compelling case for Info Barrel (amongst its many competitors), that we truly believe the product could become an entirely new ‘side business’ for those we choose to affiliate with us…..we intentionally did our research, and picked a company with huge potential, that also has sound management that operate under complete transparency.
There is just so much corruption in this industry….and, for the longest time, companies have gotten away with it. This product is GOOD….in fact, it is the best….but, it is also broiled in a bit of controversy regarding the general atmosphere of the revenue share community.
In many ways, we hope to make a statement with it: that writers will no longer stand to sell themselves short writing for websites that operate under shady ethical and moral practices….that refuse disclose how much they are even paying writers. The tide of sentiment is slowly changing, as writers are beginning to demand this transparent.
We have a passion to teach people how to do article writing the RIGHT way. And, our promise to everyone is that we will immediately cease selling the book if we notice that Info Barrel is going down the same road as eHow.
I have a very difficult time encouraging anyone to write for eHow because of what I perceive to be significant instability.
Just because a site is dominant today, doesn’t mean it will be dominant tomorrow….ESPECIALLY not in the Web 2.0 Social Media world where people are coming to really expect and demand transparency. I’ve said it before, but I REALLY thing those website/companies that demonstrate that transparency now will be fore-runners in this industry shortly……
…..and, those that refuse will sink to the bottom.
I think it is an interesting point you bring up, Kim, about the “secret algorithm” not really being applied consistently among writers. One would think (and most probably just accept it) that the “secret algorithm” would, in fact, be applied consistently.
I had never thought of this before…but, it is certainly another question that could be raised as a result of their failure to be transparent….
All we can do is guess and formulate ideas, at least when their ‘Community Managers’ openly delete posts and actively try to use other members of the community to silence those with legitimate concerns…
What if…..
What if those with the REALLY big earnings ($1,000+/month) were, in fact, having a different “secret algorithm” applied to their articles? (one that would be much more generous?)….
With Info Barrel’s structure, Ryan or Kevin had only to tap into the backend of their site and change one person’s earning revenue share from 50% to 100%, if they had wanted to. It’s really THAT easy to do.
There is no way to really prove or disapprove anything, at least without giving long winded posts about WHY we think it is occur. Deletion of posts and many other things are awefully suspicious….but, I think I speak for alot of writers (or at least I hope writers would value their own work highly enough to consider this), that the general sentiment amongst the revenue sharing community is one that is demanding much greater transparency and openness.
….to me, Info Barrel is a bit of a case study on what I BELIEVE will occur in this industry.
What if….
What if, when Info Barrel is a PR7 or PR8 website (like eHow)….what if the Top earners there earned significantly higher than the current top earners on eHow?…..case studies are beginning to emerge that validate this possibility…..
What if people who have been so loyal to eHow see that writers on Info Barrel begin earning $2,000-$3,000-$4,000/month, will they then question eHow’s lack of transparency?…..I truly believe this will occur, because, my gut tells me that, given Demand Media and Rosenblatt’s past dealings, that it may not be so off the wall to think that they may only be giving writers maybe 30% of the revenue share from their hard work.
Is this unreasonable to believe?
I would highly recommend that all your readers do their own research….and, pay CLOSE attention to the highest earners on emerging website platforms. There are MANY variable to take into consideration, such as an individual’s mastering of SEO, however, I think we can begin to get a good idea of just how ‘generous’ eHow really is.
We saw their ‘generosity’ (sarcasm) reflected in how they so eagerly compensated writers after completely cloning their articles onto their sister UK site for over 6+ months.
Did you notice that they even took the eHow UK flag down from their main website? Had 2 or 3 members not raised a fuss about that, I truly believe it would have gone largely unnoticed….and 99.9% of members would have just accepted it as a great thing to expand to a “global community” (even though eHow never had any intention on compensating these writers to begin with).
….deep breathe….off soap box…lol
“Did you notice that they even took the eHow UK flag down from their main website?”
Yes, Howie. I believe the flag was removed so that members could no longer see with one click that the articles eHow PROMISED TO REMOVE were only re-directed, and were never removed from the scam UK site. Members can still verify for themselves that their stolen article clones are on eHow’s “UK” server by simply visiting their article list on the original site and changing the domain URL in the address bar of their browsers from ehow.com to ehow.co.uk.
eHow actually blames this on Google, believe it or not, to deflect from their own failure to honor their promises.
Let’s hope our Canadian and UK friends do their homework before considering investing their own time on the new eHow Canada and eHow UK. Another blogger is covering that apparent new ehow scam quite well.
Kim,
Does eHow REALLY have what it takes to stay at the top of this industry?
Howie, now you know very well that’s a loaded question!
But I guess that depends on what you mean by “staying at the top of this industry.” I don’t think eHow has any plans to remain the top site for writers, and that’s everyone’s loss. Its members write about what they know best for the most part. The garden expert writes about gardening, the people who rescue feral cats and abused dogs write about caring for pets, and the DIY experts write about the best way to build pergolas.
But as eHow’s model shifts to prepaid content, it features more Demand Studios articles by writers who grab a pre-determined headline and fit an article around the keywords that Demand Media thinks will entice more readers to click more ads. The only industry that eHow wants to dominate is the ad-click profit industry.
Let’s check back in a year and see where they are positioned. I’m betting that the public will not accept for long that when they search for help on a medical issue, the first result on their screen is a completely useless page of comments that were once associated with a relevant article, but that have been separated from that useful content because eHow assumes the public is so stupid and helpless that they will click the ads on those comment pages instead of searching elsewhere.
Short answer: eHow currently has the traffic to stay at the top of their industry, but not the integrity.
Thoughtful responses. Thanks. One reason why ehow earnings may be higher for many people (besides the obvious reason that they get more traffic) is that ehow uses non-adsense ads as well. Those non-google ads and product-page links may be cost per impression, or flat-rate. in any case, my adsense and chitika click thru rate on InfoBarrel is pretty low. The ads are relevant (in fact, more consistently relevant than on my similar ehow articles), but I’m just not getting the clicks…It makes me suspect that Adsense is not as big a part of the eHow algorithm as everone suspects. Adsense on my own site doesn’t do very well either.
The addition of the Amazon widget [on InfoBarrel] is great, I’ve always done well with the Associates program. However, it was introduced around the same time the eHow officially banned affiliate links. Coincidence?…
Anyway, I will wait and see. Can’t hurt, can it?
Rhea, very interesting points. When we all collaborate to share information this way, it helps keep the truth about writing online in the forefront, and it’s one of the factors that I hope will keep all user-generated content sites more honest and transparent.
And please stop back later this week to see what Ryan McKenzie of InfoBarrel has to say, and let us know how InfoBarrel (or any other site) is working out for you whenever you have updates. Readers always appreciate knowing how other writers’ experiences compare to their own. Thanks!